- #1
RHoisser
- 2
- 0
Hi, a brief question from a confused undergrad, I'm about to start a section of a QM course that deals with the QM nature of condensed matter and think I should get a good idea on this before I start it.
I fully understand the wave-particle duality of photon's and electrons and the like, but I don't see how this works with phonon's.
From my rather basic understanding (all from before I learned enough about QM to understand it), a phonon is the localised vibration of atoms through a solid that allows sound to occur. So this is most definitely a wave-like property of a phonon.
But if it then follows from QM that this phonon must also have a particle-like property, what does this actually represent? Can a phonon have momentum?
Or do we get around this issue by calling it a "wave packet", which to me is like a really small bit of a wave moving like a particle?
Are these questions even worth asking, or it is just a case of "thats Quantum Mechanics"?
Cheers all
I fully understand the wave-particle duality of photon's and electrons and the like, but I don't see how this works with phonon's.
From my rather basic understanding (all from before I learned enough about QM to understand it), a phonon is the localised vibration of atoms through a solid that allows sound to occur. So this is most definitely a wave-like property of a phonon.
But if it then follows from QM that this phonon must also have a particle-like property, what does this actually represent? Can a phonon have momentum?
Or do we get around this issue by calling it a "wave packet", which to me is like a really small bit of a wave moving like a particle?
Are these questions even worth asking, or it is just a case of "thats Quantum Mechanics"?
Cheers all